LEGO pendulum clock

Put a case around it and it would be a grandfather clock but for now it’s a pendulum clock made from LEGO pieces. The video after the break shows a great overview of the build. You can see the workings at several different angles, as well as a clip that has been sped up to show the movement of the weights over time. One weight, made from dead AA batteries, drives the clock and the other weight switches the winding motor. That motor acts to automatically wind the clock when the drive weight reaches the end of its rope.

This is a nice departure from the majority of clock projects we see as it utilizes mechanical concepts instead of electronic. Most of [Pmroskelly’s] build details are shared as comments on the Picasa album found at the link above. There are also some other videos such as the one showing how the escapement works.

I made a simple lego pendulum clock with escapement over 15 years ago when I was in high school. The only technically challenging part was getting the escapement to work, because you are constrained by the lego dimensions (assuming you don’t cheat and modify the legos). I was very close to getting it to work on my own, but in the end I got help from an engineer. It was accurate to at least 1%, which is quite good for being so low-tech; sure, that is far less accurate than anything electronic but it’s certainly much more accurate than most any water clock.

no, the predefined dimensions and shapes, and their limitations, are not problems; they are the challenge. thinking outside the box while working within it, and still achieving success, is quite satisfying.